Vienna & Prague 2026-27

The 2 capitals of Mitteleuropa: the culture and tradition of a tranquil Vienna that seems to live on in the splendour of the former Habsburg Empire, set against a romantic, captivating Prague.

An ideal trip for getting to know and comparing these 2 splendid capitals. Vienna has been given many epithets over the years: it has been called the “mother of peoples” or, more cynically, the “capital of European Mongolia”. Today it certainly continues its great tradition as a “cosmopolitan city”, acting as a hinge between East and West and hosting major international institutions such as OPEC, the OSCE and the UN. The city’s historic centre has been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, as has that of Prague, visited every year by more than 4 million visitors. The political and cultural centre of Bohemia and of the Czech Republic, Prague was also the capital of the Holy Roman Empire. Its nicknames include “mother of cities”, “city of a hundred spires” and “golden city”.

Did you know? In summer Prague becomes the musical heart of Europe, with a special place for the classical tradition and for jazz. Here there is a veritable cult of Dvořák and Smetana, composers of masterpieces still loved by the general public, such as The Moldau, and of Mozart, who stayed here at length in the eighteenth century and staged Don Giovanni for the very first time. Vienna’s reputation as a “city of music” or “waltzing capital” has lasted for centuries and shows no sign of fading with time; hardly surprising for a capital that gave birth to composers of the calibre of Strauss and Schubert and was home to artists of the very highest rank, such as Beethoven and, once again, Mozart.

Regensburg, ducal city, Free Imperial City and city of the Imperial Diets, lets visitors leaf through a history spanning two thousand years. A stone tablet records the founding of the city as the camp of a Roman legion. The lively old town offers countless monuments, the most valuable of which include the Porta Praetoria, the Old Stone Bridge, the Gothic Cathedral of St Peter, the splendid church of St Emmeram and the many tower houses. As in no other city in central Europe, the original buildings here, in an excellent state of preservation, bear witness to Regensburg’s political, religious and economic importance during the Middle Ages. Regensburg’s old town was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in July 2006. Strolling through its characteristic narrow streets and across its historic squares, it is easy to imagine what life was like centuries ago, while at the same time discovering the charm of the modern city. Regensburg truly deserves its reputation as Germany’s medieval miracle. The city’s many delightful Christmas markets are famous.